Real estate startup Compass has raised $370 million

Real estate tech startup Compass has raised $370 million in fresh funding at a valuation of $6.4 billion, the company said today (July 30).

A New York-based startup, Compass aims to make buying and selling property easier through a suite of technologies it provides to home buyers, sellers, and agents. Founded in 2012, the company has spent the last few years luring brokers away from traditional real estate firms like The Corcoran Group. Compass said it now has more than 13,000 agents spread across 300 offices in the US.

Compass said it has booked record revenue for three consecutive months, with sales in the second quarter of 2019 up 250% from the same period a year earlier. The company declined to provide any figures in dollar terms, but a person familiar with Compass’s financials said it isn’t profitable. Compass has raised more than $1.5 billion to date.

The latest funding round saw participation from Softbank, the Japanese telco-turned-technology-investor that has also plowed money into Uber, WeWork, Grab, and DoorDash.

Softbank first invested in Compass in December 2017, according to venture-capital research firm PitchBook. Prior to this latest round, Compass had most recently raised $400 million led by Softbank in September 2018 at a $4.4 billion valuation.

“This company, I believe, is going to be a great unicorn,” Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son said in February 2018.

Softbank is an intimidating player in Silicon Valley, known for its tendency to pick a winner in a competitive space—food delivery, ride-hailing, real estate—and hand that company several hundred million or even billion dollars with which to eviscerate the competition.

Compass is part of Softbank’s bet on big data and artificial intelligence to overturn establishment industries, with real estate high on the list for disruption.